Editing Underground Railroad (section)

==Political background==

[[File:The disappointed abolitionists LCCN2008661783.jpg|right|thumb|[[David Ruggles]] between two men confronting John P. Darg]]

For the fugitive slaves who "rode" the Underground Railroad, many of them considered Canada their final destination. An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 of them settled in Canada, half of whom came between 1850 and 1860. Others settled in [[free and slave states|free states]] in the north.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Henry |first1=Natasha |first2=Andrew |last2=McIntosh |date=January 31, 2020 |title=Underground Railroad |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/underground-railroad#:~:text=An%2520estimated%252030%252C000%2520to%252040%252C000,reached%2520the%2520Province%2520of%2520Canada. |access-date=2022-03-02 |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |archive-date=May 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210509210944/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/underground-railroad#:~:text=An%2520estimated%252030%252C000%2520to%252040%252C000,reached%2520the%2520Province%2520of%2520Canada. |url-status=live }}</ref> Thousands of court cases for escaping fugitive slaves were recorded between the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] and the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schweninger |first=Loren |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UyBrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 |title=Appealing for Liberty: Freedom Suits in the South |year=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-066429-9 |page=9 |access-date=March 2, 2022 |archive-date=March 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302225408/https://books.google.com/books?id=UyBrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 |url-status=live }}</ref> Under the original [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1793]], officials from free states were required to assist slaveholders or their agents who recaptured fugitives, but some state legislatures prohibited this. The law made it easier for slaveholders and slave catchers to capture African Americans and return them to slavery, and in some cases allowed them to enslave free blacks. It also created an eagerness among abolitionists to help enslaved people, resulting in the growth of anti-slavery societies and the Underground Railroad.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=C.W.A. |first=David |date=January 1984 |title=The Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 and its Antecedents |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2713433 |journal=The Journal of Negro History |publisher=The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History  |volume=9 |number=1 |pages=22–25 |doi=10.2307/2713433 |jstor=2713433 |s2cid=149160543 |access-date=March 2, 2022 |archive-date=March 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302231257/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2713433 |url-status=live }}</ref>

With heavy lobbying by Southern politicians, the [[Compromise of 1850]] was passed by [[United States Congress|Congress]] after the [[Mexican–American War]]. It included a more stringent [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850|Fugitive Slave Law]]; ostensibly, the compromise addressed regional problems by compelling officials of free states to assist slave catchers, granting them immunity to operate in free states.{{sfn|Potter|1976|pp=132–139}} Because the law required sparse documentation to claim a person was a fugitive, slave catchers also kidnapped [[free negro|free blacks]], especially children, and sold them into slavery.<ref>Bordewich, Fergus, 2005, p. 324</ref> Southern politicians often exaggerated the number of escaped slaves and often blamed these escapes on Northerners interfering with Southern property rights.<ref>{{cite book| last1=Gara| first1=Larry| title=Underground Railroad| publisher=National Park Service| page=8}}</ref> The law deprived people suspected of being slaves of the right to defend themselves in court, making it difficult to prove free status.<ref>Douglass, Frederick (July 5, 1852), [http://www.historyisaweapon.org/defcon1/douglassjuly4.html "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704185311/http://www.historyisaweapon.org/defcon1/douglassjuly4.html |date=July 4, 2008 }}, ''History Is a Weapon'', Retrieved July 17, 2011.</ref> Some Northern states enacted [[personal liberty laws]] that made it illegal for public officials to capture or imprison former slaves.{{sfn|Potter|1976|p=139}} The perception that Northern states ignored the fugitive slave laws and regulations was a major justification offered for [[secession in the United States|secession]].<ref>{{cite web| url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_scarsec.asp| title=Avalon Project – Confederate States of America – Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union| website=Avalon.law.yale.edu| access-date=June 7, 2016| archive-date=February 20, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220121942/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_scarsec.asp| url-status=live}}</ref>
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